Cerberus Capital Management LP sold new shares of Tower in
an $81.3 million IPO for 11 percent less than it paid to take
control of the auto-parts supplier three years ago, and Body
Central, the Jacksonville, Florida-based clothing retailer,
reduced its offering by as much as 19 percent. NetSpend Holdings
Inc. pushed its sale back to next week, while Legacy Healthcare
Properties Trust Inc. (LRP) and U.S. Federal Properties Trust Inc.
shelved their deals.

Only four U.S.-based companies have completed IPOs in New
York this month even as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) rallied
15 percent since July 2, data compiled by Bloomberg show. At
least 54 sales have been withdrawn or postponed in the U.S. this
year, while companies based in China and India account for seven
of the 10 best performing IPOs on American exchanges as economic
growth in emerging markets outpaces the developed world.

“It underlines the sentiment in the U.S. IPO market,”
said Josef Schuster, the Chicago-based founder of IPOX Capital
Management LLC, which oversees $3 billion. “Really there’s
little interest for U.S.-domiciled IPOs. It underlines economic
concerns here in terms of the macroeconomic picture.”

VW, Toyota

Tower, which was bought by Cerberus in July 2007 and builds
hoods and doors for Volkswagen AG and Toyota Motor Corp., sold
6.25 million new shares at $13 each on Oct. 14, 24 percent less
than it sought, Bloomberg data show. The IPO valued the buyout
firm’s $181.6 million initial investment at $162.1 million. That
stake was part of a $1 billion deal by Cerberus that brought
Tower out of bankruptcy just before the credit crisis began.

Cerberus, which was Tower’s only shareholder, spent $14.57
per share for its 12.47 million-share holding, versus the per-share price of $13 that IPO investors paid, its filing with the
Securities and Exchange Commission and data compiled by
Bloomberg showed. The offering cut the New York-based buyout
firm’s stake to 67 percent, according to the filing.

At the midpoint price of $16 each, Tower would have had a
market capitalization of about $300 million, debt of about $548
million and $141 million in cash, its filing showed.

The company’s enterprise value, or the sum of its stock and
debt minus cash, would then have equaled $707 million, or 4.5
times its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and
amortization of $157 million in the 12 months ended June 30,
according to Tower’s filing and data compiled by Bloomberg.

Relative Value

That compares with the median of 5.7 times Ebitda for the
278 makers of original parts and equipment for cars and trucks,
data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Tower’s initial sale was the second from the auto industry
this year, following electric sports-car maker Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA)
in June. It also came before a planned IPO from General Motors
Co. (GM), 61 percent owned by the U.S. government after its own
bankruptcy. GM will seek to raise $8 billion to $10 billion next
month, less than the Detroit-based automaker had targeted,
according to people familiar with the matter.

Body Central sold 5 million shares at $13 each on Oct. 14
after offering them for $14 to $16, SEC filings and data
compiled by Bloomberg show.

NetSpend, the Austin, Texas-based provider of reloadable
prepaid debit cards, delayed its $222 million IPO until next
week. Legacy Healthcare of Orlando, Florida, also postponed its
$166 million sale, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Government Properties

U.S. Federal Properties Trust, the Kansas City, Missouri-based real estate company that manages properties leased to the
U.S. government, shelved a $289 million initial sale on Oct. 11.

“The volume of IPOs indicates that investors are
interested in participating,” said Lawrence Creatura, a
Rochester, New York-based fund manager at Federated Investors
Inc., which oversees about $350 billion. However “the pricing
is not as robust as hoped for, and that could indicate that
prices are being set a bit more aggressively and the market
isn’t robust enough to support that pricing,” he said.

NetSpend and five other companies are scheduled to raise
about $822 million combined next week, data compiled by
Bloomberg show. ShangPharma Corp., a Shanghai-based
pharmaceutical and biotechnology research company, and Beijing-based TAL Education Group (XRS), which offers after-school tutoring
services, will offer shares after companies from China posted
the three biggest gains among U.S. IPOs in 2010.

‘Willing to Pay’

China’s economy will grow 9.6 percent in 2011, according to
estimates from the Washington-based International Monetary Fund.
That compares with 2.2 percent for developed nations and 2.3
percent forecast for the U.S.

“What we’ve seen this year is the market has been very,
very selective,” said Timothy Cunningham, a manager at Santa
Fe, New Mexico-based Thornburg Investment Management, which had
$56 billion in assets as of June 30. “They’re willing to pay up
for the really good, premium stories, with the good fundamentals
and big opportunities in front of them.”

ShangPharma will sell 5.8 million American depositary
receipts at $14.50 to $16.50 on Oct. 19, while TAL Education
will offer 12 million ADRs for $8 to $10 each the same day,
according to SEC filings and data compiled by Bloomberg.